Management, Plain and Simple
The Amish are famous for what they don’t do. That includes driving
cars, using electricity and having phones in their homes. But it turns
out that the Amish understand as much as or more than their English
(i.e., non-Amish) neighbors do about getting businesses off the ground. A
new study in the Global Business and Economics Review says the failure
rate of Amish businesses is less than 10% in the first five years,
compared with 50% of small businesses in the U.S. over the same time
period.
How can a people whose preferred mode of transportation is a horse
and buggy do so well in the modern marketplace? That question intrigued
Erik Wesner, a former sales manager. His exploration of the Amish
approach to business can be found in his fascinating book Success Made
Simple: An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive (Jossey-Bass).
Despite the group’s insular nature, Wesner was able to live and work
among its members for three years. “We’re not going to become Amish,” he
says, “but I think some of the cultural values that the Amish display
consistently are things that non-Amish people can adopt and
incorporate.”
Some of those values will seem foreign to harried urban workers. The
Amish are known for their plain lifestyle, marked by simplicity. That
carries over to an employer’s relationship with his employees. A typical
example, says Wesner, is an owner occasionally working alongside his
employees: “One thing I heard consistently was ‘I’d never ask an
employee to do something that I wouldn’t be willing to do myself.’ It’s
like a mantra. They will exhibit that by jumping in sometimes and doing
the dirty work.” Though it’s below the boss’s pay grade, he says, “that
helps align their interests with yours. It makes an impact.” A builder
Wesner interviewed occasionally takes his 18 employees out for
breakfast, on the clock. The result? In the high-turnover construction
industry, his employees have stayed with him an average of nine years
each. So do the customers, because Amish businesses value relationships
over onetime deals.
The Amish also deliver detailed craftsmanship born of another era.
Jonas Stoltzfus Jr., 42, and his brother David manufacture luxury
leather goods for Ralph Lauren in a converted barn in East Earl, Pa. The
incongruity isn’t lost on Stoltzfus. But having been a dairy farmer,
he’d rather work higher up the value chain. “We’re trying to make a
living,” he says.
A rigorous work ethic is another norm. Daniel Fisher, 36,
painstakingly manufactures wire hairpins at his home workshop in the
village of Bird-in-Hand, Pa. The hairpins are intended for Amish and
Mennonite women, who keep their hair swept up. The work is “extremely
tedious,” he admits, but adds, “I enjoy being with my wife and kids so
we can work together.” Large Amish families provide a ready source of
labor as well as a financial incentive.
The Amish have also learned to work outside their enclave–outside
their comfort zone, in B-school parlance. That takes the kind of
flexibility displayed by Moses Smucker, 59, the owner of two businesses
in Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia. Smucker, a big man with a
bushy beard and a straw hat, starts his day a 55-mile (about 90 km) van
ride away in Lancaster County, waking at 4 a.m. to feed the horses. “I
come down here, and I adapt to this,” he says. “I go home, and I adapt
to that.” Doling out packages of liverwurst, headcheese and beef jerky,
Smucker is a born salesman. “This place doesn’t know what hit ‘em,” he
says. “I yodel, I whistle, I sing.”
America is unlikely to see an Amish CEO of a Fortune 500 company. The
Amish leave school after eighth grade and eschew the Internet. The
pacifistic Amish also don’t believe in lawsuits. Yet, says Wesner, their
success proves that “you don’t need an M.B.A. to run an effective
business.” There’s life in commerce for those more dedicated to the
Golden Rule than the golden calf.
Nama: Andre Pangagungan Putra
Kelas: 1EA02
Npm: 10213911
Coordinate Conjuction Compound Sentences
Rizka: "Hi Irfan, what are you doing in here?"
Irfan: "Hi Rizka, I'm waiting Ica and you?"
Rizka: "Oh I see. I want to go to sekretariat dosen. You want to waiting in here or waiting her in sekretariat dosen with me?"
Irfan: "Good idea, I want to follow you to sekretariat dosen but her knows me waiting her ini her. So what should i do?"
Rizka: "You can call her ofcourse."
Irfan: "I have call her, for my saldo is Rp. 0,-"
Rizka: "You can use my phone ofcourse. Yet, my saldo is not much."
Irfan: "Really? Thank you Rizka."
Management, Plain and Simple
The Amish are famous for what they don’t do. That includes driving
cars, using electricity and having phones in their homes. But it turns
out that the Amish understand as much as or more than their English
(i.e., non-Amish) neighbors do about getting businesses off the ground. A
new study in the Global Business and Economics Review says the failure
rate of Amish businesses is less than 10% in the first five years,
compared with 50% of small businesses in the U.S. over the same time
period.
How can a people whose preferred mode of transportation is a horse
and buggy do so well in the modern marketplace? That question intrigued
Erik Wesner, a former sales manager. His exploration of the Amish
approach to business can be found in his fascinating book Success Made
Simple: An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive (Jossey-Bass).
Despite the group’s insular nature, Wesner was able to live and work
among its members for three years. “We’re not going to become Amish,” he
says, “but I think some of the cultural values that the Amish display
consistently are things that non-Amish people can adopt and
incorporate.”
Some of those values will seem foreign to harried urban workers. The
Amish are known for their plain lifestyle, marked by simplicity. That
carries over to an employer’s relationship with his employees. A typical
example, says Wesner, is an owner occasionally working alongside his
employees: “One thing I heard consistently was ‘I’d never ask an
employee to do something that I wouldn’t be willing to do myself.’ It’s
like a mantra. They will exhibit that by jumping in sometimes and doing
the dirty work.” Though it’s below the boss’s pay grade, he says, “that
helps align their interests with yours. It makes an impact.” A builder
Wesner interviewed occasionally takes his 18 employees out for
breakfast, on the clock. The result? In the high-turnover construction
industry, his employees have stayed with him an average of nine years
each. So do the customers, because Amish businesses value relationships
over onetime deals.
The Amish also deliver detailed craftsmanship born of another era.
Jonas Stoltzfus Jr., 42, and his brother David manufacture luxury
leather goods for Ralph Lauren in a converted barn in East Earl, Pa. The
incongruity isn’t lost on Stoltzfus. But having been a dairy farmer,
he’d rather work higher up the value chain. “We’re trying to make a
living,” he says.
A rigorous work ethic is another norm. Daniel Fisher, 36,
painstakingly manufactures wire hairpins at his home workshop in the
village of Bird-in-Hand, Pa. The hairpins are intended for Amish and
Mennonite women, who keep their hair swept up. The work is “extremely
tedious,” he admits, but adds, “I enjoy being with my wife and kids so
we can work together.” Large Amish families provide a ready source of
labor as well as a financial incentive.
The Amish have also learned to work outside their enclave–outside
their comfort zone, in B-school parlance. That takes the kind of
flexibility displayed by Moses Smucker, 59, the owner of two businesses
in Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia. Smucker, a big man with a
bushy beard and a straw hat, starts his day a 55-mile (about 90 km) van
ride away in Lancaster County, waking at 4 a.m. to feed the horses. “I
come down here, and I adapt to this,” he says. “I go home, and I adapt
to that.” Doling out packages of liverwurst, headcheese and beef jerky,
Smucker is a born salesman. “This place doesn’t know what hit ‘em,” he
says. “I yodel, I whistle, I sing.”
America is unlikely to see an Amish CEO of a Fortune 500 company. The
Amish leave school after eighth grade and eschew the Internet. The
pacifistic Amish also don’t believe in lawsuits. Yet, says Wesner, their
success proves that “you don’t need an M.B.A. to run an effective
business.” There’s life in commerce for those more dedicated to the
Golden Rule than the golden calf.
Nama: Andre Pangagungan Putra
Kelas: 1EA02
Npm: 10213911
